LIFETIME OF ACHIEVEMENT
FROM BACK OFFICE FUNCTION TO
KEY ENABLER
Vodafone Procurement Chief Ninian Wilson on the evolution of procurement
WRITTEN BY : NEIL PERRY
Since beginning his career at British Gas in 1990 straight from university , Ninian Wilson has seen first hand how procurement has evolved from the back office to the forefront of a business . He began in the supplies and transport function at British Gas before stepping into his first senior management role at Transco in 1995 .
This ultimately led him to Cable & Wireless in 2000 before progressing into his first Chief Procurement Officer role at the age of just 34 . “ I learned a lot in the Cable & Wireless role ,” he says . “ It was my introduction not only to telecoms , but also to international procurement .”
His final stop before reaching Vodafone was at Royal Mail where he was Procurement Director and then Operations Director , where he managed the largest workforce in the UK and had full accountability for the delivery of Royal Mail ’ s transformation programme .
This was also the location for what he considers one of the largest challenges of his varied career , where as Operations Director he was tasked with re-establishing the quality of service standards for their customers .
At Royal Mail , Ninian Wilson says he had 158,000 people working with him or for him . “ I learned a lot about what it takes to work with a huge workforce ,”
22 December 2023